Zardozi Fabrics

What is Zardozi

The word “Zari” refers to gold thread and zardozi embroidery is the glittery, heavily encrusted gold thread work on fabrics. Traditionally, artists used silver wire coated/plated with gold, silk threads, beads and stones for zardozi embroidery.

Shops Available at Delhi:-OP Jawaharlal, Ritu Kumar, Frontier Raas

Available at Chennai:-Kay, Moksha

Shops in Bangalore:-Deepam

Available at Jaipur:-Zari, Vasansi

The History

First and foremost, this kind of embroidery has been practised in India and Persia since centuries. In the ancient era, craftsmen used to adorn the clothes of the royalty, their tents, their elephants and horses with heavily embroidered silver and gold thread work. Undoubtedly, this long standing practice is well depicted in the paintings and images of that period.

Zar means gold and dozi means embroidery in Persian. Today, a majority of the bridal lehengas and bridal wear dresses in India incorporate zardozi work.

zardozi

Zardozi Designs

This is definitely a painstaking embroidery work. Artists usually sketch the designs on the satin, velvet, Georgette or silk fabric. They place the fabric on a wooden framework. The crafts person then sits on the floor around the wooden framework or adda and work with needles, sequins, gold wires and silver threads. Moreover, the designs are intricate and the number of pieces used to enhance and differentiate the work is what makes each piece unique. It is heavy elaborate metal embroidery with different accessories, such as flat metal wires, twisted wires, pearls, beads & coloured stones.

Designers such as Ritu Kumar, Shantanu & Nikhil and Anamika Khanna and a few others make extensive use of Zardozi embroidery. Their beautiful creations, especially traditional Indian bridal lehengas as well as western style gowns, use elaborate Zardozi embroidery. Furthermore, the embroidery is not only heavy but also rich with a lot of gold threads woven in intricate patterns. On completion, the embroidery imparts an embossed kind of appearance . It looks magnificent & rich.